H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]

H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]
by Block Financial

H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]
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Software Summary

Manufacturer: Block Financial
Brand: H&R Block
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: CD-ROM
Release Date: 2009-11-24
Platform: Mac OS X, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Model: 1336600-09
Product features:
  • Ideal for homeowners and investors, H&R Block At Home Deluxe includes everything you need to easily complete your federal and state taxes, plus five free federal e-files
  • Customized interview process helps you easily complete your federal and state taxes
  • Easily import W-2, 1099, and data from last year's return; quickly import data from TaxCut, TurboTax, Quicken, and Microsoft Money software
  • Automatically double-checks returns for errors; built-in expertise and audit support with guidance
  • Guidance for reporting investments, dividends, home sales, and retirement income; H&R Block DeductionPro software to maximize tax savings from donations

Software Reviews of H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]

Customer Review: Buggy installation/permissions on Macs: I have the problem & the solution
Summary: 2 Stars

I've used H&R Block TaxCut (now H&R Block At Home) in the past and have been very satisfied. However this year I had two serious permission problems on the Mac. Fortunately I'm a geek and so was able to figure out solutions.

The problem is only likely to crop up if you have multiple user accounts on the Mac, and use a non-Admin account to run the H&R Block At Home software. Otherwise, if you're running with full Admin (root) privileges these bugs should not arise.

The first problem came right after I installed the program and it tried to do its initial update. It failed with the following error messages: "1008:5,-5000 Access denied error" and "You do not have enough access privileges for this installation". I had been running as a standard user so I switched to the Admin account, but to no avail. I even tried running Mac's Disk Utility program and did a Repair Disk Permissions with no success. I had to delete the program, re-run Disk Utility -> Repair Disk Permissions with the program gone, then reinstall the program as Admin. Then and only then would it do a program update and continue on.

However, for security reasons I don't like to run as Admin, so I went back to my standard user account at that point. Then the second problem came up. When I tried to start the program as a normal user I got the following error message: "Initialization Failed. Exception thrown during initialization: File open failed. File = /Users/Shared/H&R Block/2009/update.tim in open:MacFileWriterImpl". After puzzling over that for a bit I realized what was wrong and confirmed it by dropping down into the underlying Unix OS underneath Mac OS X. And that is, H&R Block has the permissions set wrong for the file specified above and for the folder (or directory) containing that file. Sure enough, an ls -l in Unix confirmed that the permissions on that directory do not grant write access to anyone other than the owner of the file & directory. For those of us who create multiple accounts on the Mac, and who installed the program using the Admin account, mere mortal user accounts will not be able to modify that file. (And I suspect the file keeps track of the last update attempt, which normally occurs immediately upon program initialization, which is why it crashes the program right away.)

So the fastest way for me to fix the problem was to go back to the Admin account, open up a Unix window using Mac's Terminal utility, change directories (cd) down to the 2009 directory, and reset the permissions with "chmod go+w 2009" "cd 2009" and "chmod go+w update.tim" for the file as well. Then everyone (group and other) can write to the file. Went back to the standard user and - well of course it worked!

Those two solutions should help those of you who are comfortable with a bit of the techie side of Mac OS and/or Unix. However for the others, this is clearly a permissions bug in the H&R Block At Home software which I hope they get pushed out to their customers quickly. However they'll have to walk their customers through it verbally, since unless you can update the program online, you can't install the patches to fix the installation & update bugs. I called technical support tonight and reported the problem, cause, and solution, so hopefully their Customer Support call centers will be able to help other customers.

I'd love to give the program more stars, but I fear these two permission bugs are going to cause a lot of grief to a lot of H&R Block customers who own Apple computers. Hopefully however this will help some folks get up and running.

Three updates since I originally posted this review:

1) I should have provided instructions to users to fix the permissions using non-Unix commands. So here goes using the Apple Mac OS X interface: a) sign on as Admin, b) open a Finder window and navigate down to /Users/Shared/H&R Block, c) right-click on the 2009 folder, d) select "Get Info" on the menu, e) on the pop-up window in the "Sharing & Permissions" section set ALL permissions that say "Read Only" to instead say "Read & Write", e) navigate into the 2009 folder and repeat the permission change instructions for the update.tim file. You're done & now your standard user account can run H&R Block At Home.

2) H&R Block pushed out an update tonight (1/21/2010). As an experiment I tried updating the program from my standard user account. It ran to completion with no errors however after finishing told me that I still had that same update that needed to be done ... which means it didn't update the files on disk after all. So the permission bugs persist, at least for now. You'll have to perform all updates using the Admin superuser account (that worked) but if you do that you can at least run the program as a normal user.

3) I installed the Maryland state program tonight (1/27) when it became available for download. Given the problems above I used the admin account to do the install and then switched back to my normal account. Ran the program: no Maryland state tax program installed! And you're only allowed to download it one time without paying again! Turns out the state program downloads into the directory ~/Library/Application Support/H&RBlock/2009/ (for non-techies ~ means starting at your home directory) and a non-shared plugin is created. This thwarts other accounts from using the state program.

Resolution: Using a Finder window in the admin account copy the file ~/Library/Application Support/H&RBlock/2009/Completed Updates/md.dmg (for other states replace md.dmg with your state's abbreviation e.g. va.dmg for Virginia.) Paste this into a shared directory such as Macintosh HD/Users/Shared. Go back into your normal account and copy that same file from the Shared directory into your own ~/Library/Application Support/H&RBlock/2009/Completed Updates/ directory. Double click on that file (md.dmg in my case.) A new window will pop up and you'll see a new file which starts with your state's two-letter abbreviation. In my case it was called MD.TCstate09. Double click on that file. Another window will pop up which says it is installing the state plug-in. After that, you'll be able to use the state program under your normal user account as you intended.

Don't ask me how to update all of this mess at this point when H&R Block is ready to push out new program updates. Do you use the admin account? The user account? Who knows? It might even depend upon whether you are updating the Federal or the State return. What a mess!

H&R Block really blew it this year on multi-user account support, at least on the Macs. I tried relaying this to their Customer Service (3 phone calls and 2 online Chat sessions) but they had no one who understood the Macs and no way for me to email to them my diagnosis and solutions. They were nice and tried to be helpful but I'm not sure they got exactly what I was saying. I hope so though.

I have liked H&R Block in the past and they are cheaper than TurboTax. This year, however, makes it difficult to remain a loyal customer. We'll see what I do in tax year 2010.

Anyway, I hope my pain is able to help other Mac users get up and running.
Write your own review about H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]
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Description of H&R Block At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + State + eFile [OLD VERSION]

Guidance for all your personal tax situations. Federal forms and State forms. Step-by-step interviews guide you through a customized experience relevant to your tax situation. Everything you need to prepare your federal and state taxes in one complete program.
H&R Block At Home Deluxe includes everything you need to easily complete your federal and state taxes, plus five free federal e-files. With a new, easy-to-use interface, H&R Block At Home Deluxe searches for hundreds of deductions to get customers the biggest refund.

Everything you need to easily complete your federal and state taxes, plus five free federal e-files. Click to enlarge.

Guidance for reporting investments, dividends, home sales, and retirement income. Click to enlarge.

Ideal for homeowners and investors, the program includes personalized tax guidance and features available only from H&R Block, such as built-in expertise and audit support with guidance, plus an H&R Block enrolled agent to represent customers in the event of an audit.

At Home Deluxe

Investors / Homeowners
The right choice for customers with more complex tax situations to easily complete their federal and state returns. Includes five free federal e-files and built-in expertise available only from H&R Block!

Includes these features:

  • Customized interview process to help customers easily complete their federal and state taxes.

  • Five free federal e-files.

  • Personalized tax guidance for popular occupations and specific deductions, plus answers to FAQs.

  • Audit support with guidance, plus an H&R Block enrolled agent to represent you in the event of an audit. Included when you file a federal return.

  • Guidance for reporting investments, dividends, home sales, and retirement income.

  • Advice, tips, and planning tools for the upcoming year.

  • Easily import W-2, 1099, and data from last year's return.

  • Quickly import data from TaxCut, TurboTax, Quicken, Microsoft Money, and H&R Block DeductionPro software.

  • H&R Block DeductionPro software to maximize tax savings from donations.

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